Well, thanks, but that doesn't get us much beyond what we have today.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
Thanks. Still needs a wall wart and SD cards (no USB sticks) but if it has your endorsement maybe we can get a real power supply for it.
Question: It says "recording time can be extended with a SD card". It is possible to record only onto the SD cards and not at all into the device's memory? Someone needs to take it home and they should not have to take the whole device because it may be needed again soon after.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
On a sunny day (Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:21:31 -0700) it happened Joerg wrote in :
True, OTOH my 12V adapter from the Timex Sinclair ZX81 from the early 1980 has been on 24/7 with original parts and is still working fine. That makes > 25 years. It has also been shorted 100000000x, as every time you plug in that phone plug it shorts.. Dunno about those modern switch mode things though, how long those last.
Yes, you can tell it to record straight onto SD. It also takes SDHD, in case your pastor is really on a roll some Sunday. ;) It doesn't have XLR inputs, but it does have two very decent condenser mics built in. (How much stereo you're going to get from two mics 2 inches apart is another matter--one for singing and one for the harmonica. ;)
It's often used by musicians, who seem to love it. I got it for my wife's birthday--it arrived about a week ago--and she seems to like it too. (She's trying to get into doing voiceovers and uses it for practice.) I haven't used it significantly myself, so you might adjust your salt grain size on that basis.
One problem with small voice recorders and wall warts is that you can get a surprising amount of hum--I haven't tested this one, but the effect is quite strong with IPods and powered external speakers or even headphones. (It goes away if you touch the metal case.)
Cheers,
Phil
Joerg,
If you really want USB sticks, there are a couple options:
1) Use SD cards with built-in USB connectors:Approach #1 seems just about as good as a USB stick with the only drawback being that, if it gets lost, your local Wal*Mart probably won't have another one in stock (whereas they would have plenty of USB sticks).
---Joel
or
Them's were the good old days when stuff lasted an eternity. Like the electrolytics in the Sachsenwerk, Astor and Philips Gamma radios out here. All around 60 years old. Ok, the Philips blew its audio plate transformer. Once, back in the 70's. Fixed that, not one problem ever since.
Not very long, usually. Anyhow, I don't like that in a church where people throw the mixer cover, boxes and all kinds of other stuff on top of it. They shouldn't but you know how that goes.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
Cool, thanks. He tries to keep his sermons to roughly 1/2hr. But we may need longer recording times for special events such as a memorial service. Relatives are really glad if they have a recording that includes all the speeches and eulogies. It's usually the last thing they've got to hang onto regarding the spouse or family member that passed away. Other than the Pontiac GTO and stuff ...
If it survived that week it ought to be good.
I figured that. Nowadays I don't expect any audio designers to truly understand diff-mode circuitry. Luckily Radio Shack has audio baluns, hum eliminators, ground noise reducers or whatever is the current marketing speak du jour for those. Now that's a 20 mile drive since our local Radio Shack became a cell phone shop.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
Yes! Thanks. Come to think of it I had seen method #2 at my sister's. That would be the ticket here.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
I would use a computer. Did you read my posting some weeks ago?
This would be most flexible, because you know: Once the client sees a first version, they always have new ideas how it could be enhanced :-)
And there are small and cheap PCs (e.g. thin clients, maybe you can get one from ebay or an old laptop). Maybe you can even combine it with your counseling service, that some parishioner can work on the software, to do something useful, e.g. if unemployed etc.
-- Frank Buss, fb@frank-buss.de http://www.frank-buss.de, http://www.it4-systems.de
I made up some plastic "cells" the size of AAA, AA, C, D, etc. with wires coming out of them to a power supply, plus some that are straight through connections. Great for life-testing toys. I have since seem AAA-to-AA / AA-to-C / etc. adapters that would work great for that. Thinkgeek.com IIRC.
-- Guy Macon
Actually, we used the Tascam SS-CDR1 that does both compact Flash and CD-R/RW recording. ( the contract required CDR, but I added the CF capability.) It ran me about $900. There is also the Tascam SSR1 that just does CF for about $600. Also see a Marantz PMD560 CF recorder for around $500. But, these are all pro grade machines, and simple operation wasn't a design requirement! It is easy to mis-set and get CD grade audio that fills up the memory very quickly, or mess up the level settings and get nothing... :-(
Charllie
Then we better take a simpler device. If all else fails an old laptop that is set to do nothing but that audio job. Bigger, but then we have it all, line powered as well as able to record on USB sticks.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
Yes, we might just do that. Use a small laptop.
Not in this area. I'd prefer to keep the sound booth as simple as possible. Example from yesterday: The vicar turns his mike from mute to active. Begins to speak. *WOOOOOOOOOO*.....
Humongous feedback, me dashing into the booth, none of the mixer pots seemed to work. Vicar hastily turns his mike off. Luckily he's pretty cool about this stuff. Turns out someone had set one of the tiny potmeters on the side to almost full blast and forgot to set it to zero later. The one for tape playback, and I had just started the recording.
Our IT guru does not want to have to maintain another PC but he said he'd be ok with a laptop that isn't connected to anything but the mixer. No LAN, no Internet. So yeah, the laptop idea is a good one. We might try that out some time this week.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
Unfortunately that sounds like a MD recorder. "Unfortunately" because Sony has put a lot of effort into keeping the format as brain dead as possible. You could score an old Hi-MD unit (1GB disc) on eBay, one with line-in and a good microphone. These units have line in too. I don't know what you are recording BTW. The units support 16 bit, 44KHz PCM recording so you bypass the whole ATRAC->MP3 transcoding. They usually need a single AA battery and can last a long time even recording. They also can use external power but this is an option you need to select. I think you'll end up with about the recording time you need. These newer units connect to PCs.
Other solutions include a VCR. A good stereo Hi-Fi unit can record great audio but you need to be careful with the dbx system in them. (That's the system that gets rid of the head switching noise) Bulky and slow. But cheap, and won't crash.
How about a nice, honking big reel to reel unit?
Yeah it DOES look neat but claiming a 'reset' button as a 'feature' doesn't inspire much confidence. 10 MB / minute (uncompressed .WAV) is beyond USB 1.0 but not any problem for 2.0. Sure wouldn't take much of a flash-drive to capture a few hours uncompressed CD quality.
GG
When you need that hum eliminator, you probably won't find it at Radio Shack. I needed one last week, and finally found one at Circuit City, right after I ordered a couple on line at Amazon. BTW, when you need one, look in the auto audio section...
Charlie
Yeah, I hate that! Had an argument with a guy at Tascam, because the 'tape monitor' feature is a real PITA! Sure, it is nice in some configurations, but if you want to have a non-operator setup, and still use the tape (or CDR) for playing as well as recording, then you get feedback up the ying-yang! You have to set you record levels low, and your playback levels low so that you get an overal loss of at least 10dB in the loop. They really need to have a 'disable monitor' option in there...
Charlie
Hmmm...
Ok, you can record either to the internal memory, or to an SD card. However, I don't see an aux in jack on it to connect to a PA system, just uses its own mikes. Probably not!
Charlie
What about this Philips unit:
Dave.
s
your
me to
What (interface) do you use to put your church service audio up on the web? Just MP3 files attached to a click button, or something more elaborate? I have a similar project in the works at our church...
Right now, we just have archived audio available for downloading, and a live Internet streaming.
-mpm
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